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Ferguson City Council and the DOJ have jointly filed a consent decree on reforms
It follows months of negotiations aimed at an overhaul of police and court systems
(CNN) —
The U.S. Justice Department and Ferguson have jointly filed a court-enforceable agreement to overhaul the Missouri city’s troubled police force and municipal court system.
“The American people must be able to trust that their courts and law enforcement will uphold, protect, and defend their constitutional rights,” said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch.
“The filing of this agreement marks the beginning of a process that the citizens of Ferguson have long awaited – the process of ensuring that they receive the rights and protections guaranteed to every American under the law.”
The national spotlight on Ferguson began after the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in August 2014. Brown, who was unarmed, was black, and Wilson is white.
Brown’s death prompted days of protests and riots in Ferguson, and a national conversation on the role of race in police interactions with citizens.
Photos: Evolution of Black Lives Matter
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Black Lives Matter started with a hashtag. Now it is a rallying cry, a cause and a movement in the wake of the deaths of black men at the hands of police. The latest police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile have spurred a new round of protests across the country and worldwide.
Photos: Evolution of Black Lives Matter
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Some organizers say the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012 is where the movement began. Demonstrators wore hoodies and carried Skittles, the candy Martin had bought on the night he was killed.
Photos: Evolution of Black Lives Matter
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The shooting death of unarmed teen Michael Brown in August 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, by an officer lit an existing fuse and protests engulfed the town.
Photos: Evolution of Black Lives Matter
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John Minchillo/AP
By the time Eric Garner died after being placed in a chokehold by a New York Police Department officer, support for Black Lives Matter had grown nationwide.
Photos: Evolution of Black Lives Matter
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Protests and clashes with police after the officer wasn't indicted in the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson led to another round of protests, with the rallying cry "No justice, no peace."
Photos: Evolution of Black Lives Matter
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Demands for change led to organized protests in major cities, including New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco and Oakland, California, in December 2014.
Photos: Evolution of Black Lives Matter
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Chuck Burton/AP
Activist Muhiyidin d'Baha took the call for action into a North Charleston, South Carolina, City Council after the killing of Walter Scott by a North Charleston police officer.
Photos: Evolution of Black Lives Matter
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The death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore led to frustrations that splintered into violence; a CVS Pharmacy was looted and burned during protests after his funeral.
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A battle waged against the Confederate flag as a symbol of hatred after Dylann Roof was accused of killing nine people in a South Carolina church in an attempt to spark a race war. Activist Brittany "Bree" Newsome took the battle flag off the flagpole at the Statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina.
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The political activism entered the 2016 campaign, with some parts of the movement deciding to interrupt presidential candidates to demand more be done.
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Black Lives Matter demonstrators made a point of protesting Democratic events to bring attention to their issues. The group had a tense meeting with Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire and released video of the conversation.
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The movement also worked its way into popular culture, sparking an episode of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," which took on a police officer killing an innocent unarmed black man.
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Black Lives Matter protesters continued to disrupt political events in an attempt to be heard, including this Hillary Clinton event in Atlanta.
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Racial tensions led to a weekslong protest movement at the University of Missouri campus that ousted both the university president and the school's chancellor.
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The movement was born out of frustration over the death of young black men. Jamar Clark's funeral in Minneapolis in November is an example of that continued unified response.
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Black Lives Matter demonstrators march in Cleveland on December 29, 2015, after a grand jury declined to indict Cleveland Police officer Timothy Loehmann for the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice on November 22, 2014.
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Sirica Bolling raises her fist as she walks down Jefferson Avenue during a Black Lives Matter protest in Newport News, Va., Sunday July 10, 2016, following the fatal shootings of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota.
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Demonstrations have popped up in cities around the world, including this one in London on July 10, 2016, following the most recent police shootings.
A DOJ investigation after the shooting last year found the Ferguson Police Department had discriminated against African-Americans.
The department and Ferguson City Council spent months working out a plan to reform Ferguson’s police and court systems, but when councilors came to vote in February, they demanded seven amendments to the deal.
City officials at the time insisted that their vote wasn’t a rejection of the DOJ agreement but rather a push to return to the table because of concerns over the cost of some terms such as additional salary to police.
However, the DOJ – which alleges a pattern and practice of unconstitutional police conduct in the city – sued the city. This week, councilors agreed to accept its consent decree.
An independent monitor will assess implementation of the consent decree terms, which include:
- Creating a community engagement strategy
- Training police and court staff in bias-awareness
- Reforming the municipal court system to ensure that enforcement is driven by public safety, not revenue
- Ensuring that stops, searches and arrests do not discriminate on the basis of race or any other protected characteristic
- Requiring police officers to use body-worn and in car cameras, and the police department to fairly investigate any allegations of misconduct
- The establishment of a Civilian Review Board to review investigations of complaints involving excessive force, abuse of authority and use of discriminatory slurs
Click here for the consent decree in full
In March last year, the Justice Department formally closed its investigation into police officer Wilson, declining to bring civil rights charges against him over Brown’s death.
It concluded Brown was moving toward the officer when Wilson fired.
But the DOJ also issued a 102-page report, saying some Ferguson police officers saw residents as “sources of revenue,” leading to practices that federal investigators said disproportionately targeted black residents.
It also found evidence of racist jokes sent by some Ferguson police officers and court officials, and made 26 recommendations for reform.
Brown’s parents filed a wrongful death suit against the city in April, which has yet to be heard.
